Asked about the polls which show that Peter Dutton himself, the person, is the reason that people don’t like the Coalition, Dutton says:

I won’t go into the priority polling, but you will see where the  government is spending money at the moment in their defending seats at the moment. They are not on the offence.

…Australians are hurting.  That is the reality. People are  going backwards and we’ve what a  household recession for nearly two years for families. The question is how can we help people after three years of this government?

…We have a chance to course correct to get the country back on track and that is what we  are concentrating on. 

Q: Are you saying that your internal polling is saying that your internal polling is saying something like you can win here? 

Dutton:

No question about, that Nat. I suspect the internal polling in the Labor Party is doing the same. Look at ‘The Australian’ today where they are spending money, they are  defending seats and that is the  reality. In Victoria, people have  had enough of Labor at a state and federal level. The government has  pulled money out of infrastructure, brought in 1 million people which  created a housing crisis. 29-30,000 small businesses have gone broke and tragically sadly behind every one of those businesses is a story where someone has lost their home or their life savings.

I think there are a lot of quiet Australians who are not that  interested in politics, but no the reality of their own lives the past few years or their neighbour or  sister or brother or someone in  their family and they know it is not been an easy time.

It is not a beauty contest.